Global Industrial Research & Innovation Analyses

Project Information

GLORIA

Grant agreement ID: 811163

DOI

10.3030/811163

Project closed

EC signature date 16 May 2018

Start date 1 June 2018

End date 30 November 2020

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Europe In A Changing World - Inclusive, Innovative And Reflective Societies

Total cost

€ 2 350 000,00

EU contribution

€ 2 345 000,00

Coordinated by

JRC -JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE- EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GLORIA (Global Industrial Research & Innovation Analyses)

Reporting period: 2019-12-01 to 2020-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project was set according to the EUROPE 2020 strategy, which puts research and innovation at the core of policies contributing to job creation and sustainable economic growth. It establishes the level of R&D investment in the EU economy as one of the five headline targets: 3% of the EU's GDP to be invested in R&D. The policy initiatives also comprise the creation of an investment-friendly climate via the Digital Single Market, the Energy Union, the Capital Markets Union, structural industrial transformation and the European Semester. Investment in research and innovation is one of the EU’s highest policy priorities. Among the Juncker Commission's top priorities, the "Investment Plan for Europe" has research and innovation investment as one of its main objectives to trigger funding and mobilise investment in the real economy. This includes removing obstacles to investment, providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects and making smarter use of new and existing financial resources.
The objective of this project is to generate science-based evidence to support policy making in the above initiatives by monitoring, analysing and benchmarking the global industrial players in R&D, following the mandate given by Member States of actions to be implemented by the European Commission since 2003. These companies are responsible for very large shares of Europe's total business R&D investments and their global flows. Taking a company-based perspective and expanding beyond R&D by analysing other indicators, e.g. the technological profile, and location of companies, the project allows getting a better understanding of the main determinants and barriers for research and innovation investments in Europe and of their impacts in terms of productivity, growth and employment. This shall help policy makers to design and implement measures to support business R&D investments in Europe, which is especially relevant in the context of the "Investment Plan for Europe" and its European Strategic Investment Fund (ESIF).
The close collaboration with DG-R&I has been an asset allowing for adaptation to unforeseen circumstances during implementation, esp the new Commission priorities and the Green Deal adoption, and the impact of the covid-19 crisis.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the reporting period, the GLORIA project has fully achieved its main objectives:
1. It has ensured the continuation of collection of high quality data on main corporate R&D investors, covering a sample of companies representing about 90% of the total R&D investments financed by the business sector worldwide. The dataset has been enriched with extremely valuable data on subsidiaries (overall the total company sample includes more than 600.000 individual companies) and with novel data on the IP portfolios (patents, publications and trademarks) of these global leading players. This data is open to the public (the data on IP portfolios has been jointly developed with the OECD and is available on-line as COR&DIP database) and covers a period of more than 12 years. This offers enormous possibilities for analysis and better understanding of major innovation industrial activities and dynamics.
2. Based on this data collection, the project has delivered two new editions of the EU R&D Investment Scoreboard and of the EU Industrial R&D Survey each, for 2018 & 19, and supported the preparations of the respective 2020 editions. The Scoreboard shows an intensifying race for global technological leadership over the past decade. The 2019 editions of the Scoreboard and Survey were adapted to the new policy priorities. The 2019 Scoreboard assesses the technological potential of European companies in the global context regarding green patents. The 2019 Survey included questions on sustainability strategies in companies.
3. The GLORIA project has further exploited and analysed the data collected in view of gathering empirical evidence to support policy making in the areas of research and innovation and industrial policy based on the above priority areas agreed between the JRC and DG-RTD for the project.
A detailed account of the results of this analytical work can be found in the corresponding annual reports and on the project website.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact included the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far. Here, an important aspect of the socio-economic impact of this project is the provision of reliable data for measuring industrial R&D and benchmarking companies. These data on the top 2500 R&D investing companies worldwide, plus the EU 1000 counterparts, are adjusted to a reliable methodology and made publicly available on the project website every year in December. These data have a time lag of less than one year, compared to the at least 3 to 4 years’ time lag of official statistics as those released by Eurostat. This makes the Scoreboard data a highly valuable tool for scientific and policy analyses. The socio-economic impact is further enhanced by the project team's own analyses. During the procject, the results of this analytical work have been reflected in a total of more than 40 reports and publications) These are made publicly available on the project website and for scientific articles via open access to the respective journals.
One important activity of this project has been the organisation of GLORIA Workshops, a way to confront and disseminate results with main project stakeholders: policy-makers, industry representatives and academic experts. Three workshops have been organised and all materials (summary reports, presentations, list of participants, agendas, and background documents) are available at the project website. In addition, annual reporting on the workshops has been sent as project deliverables.
Apart from these workshops, a wide range of dissemination channels has been used. Further, the results also included theoretical and methodological analyses contributing to the advancement of analytical approaches of our key topics, and especially regarding the development of new indicators, e.g the SDG-related reporting and reputation firm-level indicator piloted for the 2020 Scoreboard. A detailed account of the results of this analytical work can be found in the corresponding annual reports and on the project website.

 

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